Massacre Fallout: 'A' Student Charged for Essay

A straight-A student at a suburban Chicago high school reportedly was charged with disorderly conduct yesterday over a paper he had written for his English class.

Authorities declined to specify exactly what was said in the paper that disturbed the 18-year-old student’s teacher and led to his arrest Tuesday, but the alleged threat was not specific, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“There can certainly be writing that conveys concern for us even though it does not name names, location or date,” said Jill Hawk, the school district superintendent for Cary-Grove High School, where arrestee Allen W. Lee is a student.

Cary Police Chief Ron Delelio said Lee’s essay contained no specific threat, but was “disturbing and inappropriate,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Lee is now being privately tutored, the article says.

The misdemeanor charge against the teen, whose father reportedly emigrated from China 16 years ago, comes in the aftermath of a massacre at Virginia Tech by a gun-toting student of Korean descent who killed 32 people and injured dozens more last week. Officials nationwide admittedly now are especially sensitive about possible threats by other students following that campus carnage.

The boy’s father told the Tribune that any perceived threat in his son’s paper must have been a joke, and a lawyer at Northwestern University’s Children and Family Justice Center said the reaction to Lee’s paper was an example of zero-tolerance policies gone awry.